Nino Baldacci

From USAFA Folklore

Nino Baldacci is the fictional perpetual cadet who has somehow never managed to graduate.

[edit] Sightings and near-sightings

Nino's last name was originally spelled "Baldachi." During the Class of 1961 first year, we learned about the legendary and mythical figure of Nino Baldachi. When we arrived at USAFA in 1957 (as a member of the third graduating class) Nino was everywhere but was very hard to locate. The closest I came to seeing Nino at the Academy was when he was listed as a member of my thermodynamics class in the spring of 1960. Our instructor for that very difficult class was the then Major Donald S. Lopez (who is today a Deputy Director of the Air and Space Museum). We were shocked when Don Lopez presented to us a paper written by Nino in which Nino explained the intricacies of the esoteric principles of "entropy" and "enthalpy". (If you don't know what they are, look them up in the dictionary… I still don't know what they are and I fault Don Lopez for that!). Nino became an instant class hero but his stay with our class was short lived. As a result of his many brushes with the military department, due to his proclivity to accrue demerits, Nino washed back to the Class of 1962 (the infamous Red Tags). - Hector Negroni, Class of 1961